Dreams of the Overworld
by gsfreak
Summary: Six years after Aang confronted Azula for the second time... A new element was dicovered in the worst way, Aang has abandoned the title of Avatar, and now somebody has come for him. Summary sucks, just read. Also, Golden Sun crossover. Rated T for safty.
1. Alex and Aang

I_ do NOT own Avatar, or Golden Sun._

**Dreams of The Overworld**

-Are you sure he's the right one?

-If he's not, we're both doomed…

-You must go to him. He must help-

-Yah, I know, ok? But I need time… It will be hard enough just getting ot his world, I may not have enough power… I may even die.

-Why are you always so calm?

-Being otherwise would only get in the way…

-But you're never not calm. Doesn't it get boring?

-Boring? I've been stuck underground for two thousand years, I've grown immune to boredom.

-Well, get to sleep, you need to rest, and I need to show you something. The Avatar is very, uh, dark nowadays. You should see why.

-What exactly does that have to do with me sleeping?

-You'll see…

-Well, all I'm saying is you better be right. For my sake, and yours. And soon, I'll have my revenge…

**Under The Earth Kingdom**

One week after the fall of the Earth Kingdom…..

"Are you sure about this Aang?" Katara asked, turning one last time to him.

"Would you leave him alone, sis? He's as worried as the rest of us, ok?" Sokka said, also turning around.

"Yah, there's no turning back now, Katara, so please, let's do this…" Aang said, continuing on past her. They were underground, and Toph and Aang were tunneling through the rock. They had made a plan as soon as Aang was better. It was simple, yet effective, as Sokka put it. They would tunnel directly under the throne room, and attack Azula. They had been slowed by Katara's constant worrying. Suddenly, Toph stopped.

"We're here. Now, we go up," she said. Aang nodded, and they thrust their hands upwards. The four of them rose steadily, moving through the solid rock.

"Now, when we get up there, you three go directly for Azula's guards, Toph, take out any Di-li in the immediate are, and I'll go into the Avatar state. Remember, leave her to me. I'm not risking one of you getting- "

He cut off as suddenly the rock above him was un-bendable. Toph stopped, too.

"What is this?" Aang asked.

"Metal," Toph said. "But what is it doing here? We're directly under the city?"

"I don't know, but let's go around it, and keep moving," Sokka said. "I don't like this."

"I have a better idea," Toph said. She reached up, and crunched her hands into the metal, and ripped it open. They all climbed through the hole in the metal, Sokka going reluctantly.

What they saw was shocking…

It was a large room that looked like some sort of lab. It had a table in the center with chains hanging from it. The walls were covered in pure, shiny metal, and from the ceiling hung a huge structure. It was a frame of some kind, shaped like an upside-down cone, pointed at the center at the table.

But parts of the lab were missing, and the huge cone-structure looked like it was unfinished.

"What is it?" Katara asked.

"It must be some sort of torture chamber, look at that table," Sokka said. "It looks like somebody could be chained to it." They all looked at the room in awe, subconsciously getting closer to each other. Suddenly, Toph said, "Somebody's coming, quick!"

She pushed them towards the hole, and they all jumped in. Toph turned and smoothed the metal out where the hole had been. They listened as best they could through the metal.

"How much longer until it's ready?" asked a female voice.

"It won't take much more than a day now, it's nearly ready," answered a deep, male voice.

"That soon? Excellent." The voice faded away, and the four of them heard a door slam.

"Well, whatever that was, let's get out of here." Aang said. Toph nodded, and they bent around the metal room. They found out that there was also a tunnel leading down to the lab, which was also made of metal. They followed this up almost all the way to the throne room. Just below it, Toph stopped.

"Ok, we're only a few feet below the room…" She whispered.

"Then let's do this," Aang said. He closed his eyes, and concentrated. They watched as his tattoos started to glow, and when he opened his eyes, they were glowing, too.

"Let's do this," he repeated, this time in that mix of his voice, and the avatars'. And with that, Toph launched them up into the room.


	2. Azula and the Darkness

Azula walked out of the new room. She was honestly surprised that the room was finished so quickly. She had only requested the construction of it a few days ago. But she was very pleased. She smiled as she remembered how it had all began.

The vein of darkness was discovered on accident. They had been digging a new palace, one that would be hidden underground. The diggers had been working for only an hour when the reports had come to her that some earthbending soldiers had disappeared during the digging. She had thought that it was the Avatar, trying to attack her workers, but when she got there, she found it was nothing of the sort. She had walked down the tunnel only half a mile before she found it. On the wall of the path was an opening, behind which there seemed to be nothing. Not empty space, or rock, but nothing at all. She couldn't see a thing. Azula had then told one of her escorts to put his hand in it, to see what it was, and though he was frightened of the strange nothingness, he was even more frightened by Azula, and so had done it. When he did, his fingers turned black, a black darker and deeper than Azula had ever seen. Slowly, his whole hand, then his arm turned black, and the darkness crept along until it covered all of him except his head. As it closed in on his face, he began to scream, and he had looked at Azula pleadingly, but she had been far too fascinated to try to save him. When it covered his face, it removed all expression from it, and he stopped yelling at once. He had stood absolutely still, until finally Azula had picked up a stone from the tunnel floor and thrown it at him. It bounced off his chest with a sound like rack hitting grass, and the blackness rippled where the stone had made contact.

"What is this?" she had said aloud.

She decided that she would experiment with it.

"Soldier, take one step forward!" she snapped at him. He did nothing. Again, she shouted at him.

"I said step forward, **now**! Or I'll kill you on the spot!"

The soldier turned his face toward her, and his expressionless face had been replaced with a frown.

"Could you really?" he had asked. But his voice was what really made Azula smile. It was deep, loud, and best of all, _menacing. _He could easily frighten a common soldier into submission.

"What do you think?" she had asked him.

"I am only one body now. But there is more of me. This one vessel would be nothing to me, only a miniscule wound." The black face had then grinned. "I feel greatness in you. Through you I could wield a power fit for conquering."

"Or," Azula had said. "I could use **you **to overtake all the world. But how do I use you without losing myself, as this man did?" The darkness's smile had grown even larger at that point.

"If it cold be done, don't you think it would have? Why do you think that nobody alive knows of me?"

At that point, Azula had enough information, and stepped back.

"Well, you've never had me to deal with before," she had said confidently, before thrusting her fingers forward. The lightning was through his heart before the darkness even noticed. As he fell to the ground, Azula had watched as the black slowly crept off the soldier, and flown back into the vein of nothingness.

"So how do I use this…" she had said to herself. Suddenly, the wall had cracked, right next to her, and she worried for her safety for a moment. Then she realized, it wasn't cracking, the darkness was drawing on the wall. It was moving slowly, but it was making some sort of design, and she hadn't understood it at all.

She had left after that, and called for the most brilliant minds of the Fire Nation AND the Earth Kingdom to examine the design. Only one person out of twelve of them had understood the drawings. He had explained to the other twelve, and told Azula. She had immediately ordered construction of the project, promising large amounts of money to them.

Now, she looked back on her new room with a smile. It would be ready in a day, and then she would be able to use it. She wasn't entirely sure what it would do, and was still searching for a good enough specimen to test it on. She remembered what the scientist had told her.

"It is a machine, one to channel some sort of elemental energy directly into somebody's body. It could be used to make anybody a bender, given the right amount of the element… But where you have it set up…"

Now, she walked up to him again.

"I just talked to the head of construction," She said to him.

"Then you know that we will be done by tomorrow?" he said with a smile.

"Yes, and I'm happy to hear it. But tell me, do you know exactly what this devise can even do?"

"As I said at the beginning, this can input enormous amounts of elemental energy into a person, which would be on that table in the middle of the room. If we were to find a way to redirect that vein you found, then we could potentially control the amount of it put into you, and you could have total control over yourself. You said that the darkness acted through the soldier. So maybe if **you **were in control, you could have access to all the power it has… the potential is nearly infinite!"

Azula smiled. "Thank you. You may leave now."

The scientist walked in the opposite direction Azula was, back toward the machine. Azula waked up the tunnel, and entered the throne room through the secret door in the back. She looked around, and then sat in her new throne. Her two companions were moving about the room, and about six of the royal guards scattered about the room. She didn't need any extra security, now that the Avatar was out of the city. And she knew he wasn't, because the reports on the flying bison told her that he was currently flying towards one of the Air temples. She really didn't care if he went into hiding. All the better for her.

Suddenly, the ground of the throne room exploded upwards, and four people emerged from the ground. And one was glowing.


	3. The Loss of

"So, Avatar, you have-" Azula began, but before she even finished her sentence, he had swung his arms, and the walls opened up where the Di-li were perched, and they were partially swallowed by the wall. At the same time, he stepped forward with a thud and the remaining two girls were also pulled into the stone. Only Azula jumped out of the way in time. She turned and shot a bolt of lightning, not at the Avatar, but Katara, who only barely managed to dodge out of the way in time.

Toph stepped forward, and Aang followed suit, both ripping huge rocks out of the ground which closed in on Azula. However, she just flipped out of the way, and caught the boomerang that had just been thrown by Sokka. She threw it back at him at mind-numbing speed, and it slammed into stone that had just risen in front of him.

"Sokka, Katara, Toph, get out of here," Aang said in that booming voice.

"No, Aang, I," Katara started, but he held his hand up, and deflected another bolt of lightning. But as they reluctantly began to leave, four people appeared out of seemingly nowhere. The strange part was that the four people were totally black, including their clothes. The four people moved forward in unison, and Katara, Sokka, and Toph backed away from them. Azula merely sat back and watched. This was planned.

Aang didn't wait to see what they were, but instead moved his arms in a quick, twisting motion, and whipped up a wind that lifted the people off the ground, Toph anchoring herself and friends to the ground. But as the people rose, they slowed, then started to go back down. Aang increased the force of his attack, and the whirlwind started to crackle with electricity around the figures. But they simply floated to the ground, and then stepped forward again, this time speaking.

"Avatar, stand down, and we will kill your friends quickly and painlessly. Continued aggression will result in your companions' demise."

The voice was deep and full of power, amplified by all four bodies. Aang stopped for a moment, then frowned.

"So this is how you plan to stop me?" he asked.

Aang turned to the first of the four black soldiers, and, though he wasn't sure how, threw fireballs at each of them in turn. The first two connected, and as the third one hit, Toph and Katara attacked the fourth person with their own attacks. The first three people, Azula noted, fell just as the first had, the darkness sliding off the body as it became useless. The third was injured, but still alive, and the darkness rippled around where the wounds would be. But even as they watched, the darkness that had slid off the bodies moved toward them. Aang tried to crack the ground where the darkness moved, but they moved over the empty space, and converged on Sokka.

"Stop!" Aang cried commandingly. "Leave him, it's me you're after!"

"No. We warned you, and you ignored us. Now we will take your friends." The darkness moved closer to Sokka, who started to freak out and run in the opposite direction. At that moment, Azula fired another bolt at Aang, who barely managed to deflect it. He slammed his feet into the ground, and felt Toph do the same. Rock moved up around Azula, and when she attempted to jump out of the way, the rock moved, caught her, and held her completely immobile. But when they returned their attention to Sokka, he was already being covered by the darkness. Aang watched helplessly as the last bit of his face was covered, while Katara frantically tried to pull it off. But it wasn't tangible. He had simply become the darkness. She collapsed to the ground in agony, even as the nest shadow reached towards her.

Aang was suddenly not in the avatar state anymore.

"Katara, look out!" he cried, diving towards her. But as he grabbed her, the blackness had just reached her, and she began to be lost to it.

"Aang!" she cried. "Help!" She tried to heal it with the water from her pouch, but nothing happened to it as the dark climbed up her lower body.

"Katara, no…" Aang cried, and Toph joined them. Both of them felt tears come to their eyes as Katara was slowly covered by the darkness. He tried as hard as he could, but nothing he did stopped it, and in the end, just before it took her, he looked away. His eyes stopped leaking, and he turned to the last original dark soldier.

"You will pay for what you've done to them," Aang said, his voice suddenly sounding very menacing.

"We did what we were asked, that was all," The soldier replied.

As he said this, the remaining blob of darkness split and attacked Azula's companions, of whom Aang made no notice.

"What?" shouted Azula from across the room. "That wasn't part of the deal!"

But the darkness ignored her, and Aang looked at the soldier.

He locked the shadow Sokka and Katara into the ground like the rest, and stepped towards the soldier.

Then, (again without knowing how he did) he shot a bolt of lightning at it, glowing for a fraction of a second as he did, and it collapsed. He watched as the darkness moved off the body and moved toward Azula, and freed her at once.

"I want her for myself," he said aloud, even as Azula shot lightning at the blackness moving toward her, a look of fear covering her face.


	4. Aang

_Author's note: Just so you know, because somebody pointed this out to me, the darkness I describe is not even remotely the same as the Alien that forms Venom in Spider Man 3. It is an idea of my own creation, just so you know._

_Thanks for the reviews though!_

-So, this is how it started?

-Alex, you're interrupting, I'm not done yet.

-Fine, but remind me to take something to keep that darkness off me.

-Already done. It's already been injected in your bloodstream.

-You think of everything, Aya.

-I know, you can thank me later…

-But you know, once I'm there, I may not be able to talk to you anymore.

-Yes, you will. I'll be whispering in your ear the whole time.

-Ah, so you did more than inject the anti-darkness in me?

-Go back to sleep, Alex. The next part is the best. It's quite juicy.

-How do you so easily take pleasure in other people's pain?

-The same way you do.

-Good point. Fine, I'll go to sleep. But only to see his life be ruined beyond comprehension, not because you asked me to.

-Alex, you are too arrogant.

-Goodnight Aya.

**Inside the Palace of the Earth Kingdom…**

"I want her for myself," Aang said. He started to glow again, but stopped.

_No, _he thought to himself. _No more. I can't do this anymore. Not as the Avatar…_

He simply stood there. He didn't move as the Darkness moved closer to Azula, looking like a simple shadow moving over the ground. He smiled cruelly as the look of fear grew on her face, and his eyes darkened with a terrible, vengeful happiness. Slowly, the shadow covered Azula, until it finally covered her face. But when she was taken over, she spoke in her own voice.

"This….wasn't…..the deal…." She said in gasps. Then her voice switched to that of the darkness.

"This power. We like it. Why would you deny us this?" He asked.

"You…don't…own me…." Said Azula's voice, getting stronger. All the while, Aang stood and watched as she bent over double, screaming. The shadow that covered her started to retreat from her face, until it reached her neck. There, it stopped, however, and Azula looked down at her body of darkness.

"So, this is all the power darkness can muster against me?"

"No," said the darkness' voice. "But you can wield us better than we can wield you. So for now, it is to our advantage to have you in control."

The bodies that the darkness had been controlled were released, and fell to the ground, dead. But Aang took no notice still, and faced Azula.

"You can't beat me, not now," Azula said, stepping forward.

"I wont beat you. I'm going to destroy you."

Aang thrust his hands up, throwing Azula into the air and slamming her into the wall. She recovered quickly, and jumped at him. He tried again, thrusting rock upwards, but this time, she moved right through the solid stone.

"This is an improvement," she said. She shot lightning as him, grazing his shoulder as he dodged out of the way. He blasted her with a stream of air, and followed by slamming her with a rock from behind, but again, she moved through it. Then, suddenly, she was behind him, and moved to grab him. But as she did, Toph jumped out of the ground below, slamming her into the air, and crushing her between two rocks in midair.

"Toph!" Aang yelled.

"Yah, you forgot about me, I get it," she said, tears from earlier still on her face. "We need to get out of here!"

But as she said it, Azula came up behind her, and held a sparkling hand to her throat.

"Shall I, Avatar?" she asked.

"Stop!" he cried. "Don't hurt her! Take me instead."

"You?" she asked. She seemed taken aback by his offer. The voice of the darkness spoke again.

"Use him for the machine. He will be our test."

Azula let go of Toph's neck, and held her wrists, all in an instant.

"Avatar, if I set her free, you will willingly go with me?" she asked.

"Don't do it, Aang!" Toph yelled. Azula twisted her wrists, and she stopped.

"If you let her go, and never go near her again." Aang said slowly, almost unemotionally.

"No!" Toph screamed again, but nobody listened.

"Deal. Guards!" She shouted, and in a moment, two men walked into the room. "Take her outside the walls. If she attempts to fight, kill her. Agreed, Avatar?"

"Fine. Just get her out of here. Toph, leave, go back home, anywhere, just stay away from here."

The guards led Toph out, who looked devastated. Azula turned to Aang.

"Follow me."

They turned and left, heading towards the room underground, where the strange machine and the darkness waited for them.


	5. Where are your tattos?

-Well, well, I never imagined it was so quick. You would think destroying him would take longer.

-Alex, it did. Over the next three years, he lost himself almost completely. But I'll tell you more about it when you arrive.

-So you're coming, Aya?

-I've decided that I will. We need to stay together.

-Good. I was afraid I was going to have to face him alone.

-You, afraid?

-Oh, you know what I meant.

-Yah, I was just teasing. So we leave in only a moment. Are you ready?

-I think so. I'll admit, I'm not entirely sure we can pull this off.

-You're far too dramatic, Alex. Remember, it's my plan. It has to work.

-I'm dramatic?

-Let's go…

-_Ars Notorue Uniservous!_

-_Ars Notorue Uniservous!_

Four years after the fall of the Earth Kingdom-Outside small earth village 

Aang and Toph walked along outside the fence, holding hands. They were really on watch, Toph knew, but she still liked to think of it as being romantic, too. She knew he did too, which was the only reason she even agreed to go with him. As they walked around the village, they listened quietly to the nature around them.

The village had been her home ever since Sokka and Katara died, and she fled the Earth Capital. She arrived to an accepting community, and a safe, small, out of the way home. Aang had joined her nearly three years later, though he revealed little of what had happened. The fence had gone up only after he had arrived, as had many other security measures. This was more because of the new soldiers of darkness that roamed the earth, wreaking chaos wherever they went, than anything else.

Now, as they walked, Aang asked her, "Toph, what is it that keeps bothering you?"

"Bothering me?" she asked, feigning innocence.

"Toph, please," Aang laughed, stopping. "We've been together for almost a year now, I think I know when something is bothering you. And it has been for as long as we've been here. What is it?"

Toph sighed. "It's just, you've never really told me what happened. I waited three years to be told you were dead. Then, you just show up looking for me out of nowhere. What happened to you? I've seen you in the forest, when you thought you were alone… You have such strange powers, like the Dark Soldiers."

It was Aang's turn to sigh. "Toph, I-"

Suddenly, a bright beam of light shot down from the sky, and a sound louder than a thunderclap came from around the turn of the fence.

"Toph! Aang! Hurry!" Somebody ran around the corner, looking frantic.

"What is it?" Aang asked.

"We don't know, but some sort of portal opened up, and two people popped out of nowhere! We didn't know what to do, so we told them to stay there."

"And did they?" Asked Toph.

"One did, but he seemed to be protecting the other more than agreeing with us."

"Let's go," Aang said, and Toph nodded. They ran around the bend of the fence, and saw about twenty villagers gathered around something. They pushed through to see two people standing there.

The first one was a man who stood about an inch taller than Aang, with bright blue hair, and similar clothing. The other was a girl that looked no older than Toph; 15. She had dark brown hair that fell to her shoulders, and a rather thin figure.

The man was standing between the villagers, looking at them calmly.

"You don't understand," he said to them quietly. "We are looking for the avatar. I just need to speak to him."

"And I'm telling you," said the Mayor of the village, Brom. "The Avatar died four years ago. He's gone."

"That is impossible, I would have known if he died," replied the man. Although he spoke confidently, he turned to the girl behind him, and raised his eyebrows.

"He is alive," She said, in a strong, calm voice. "If he chooses to hide, then we will find him elsewhere, I'm sure."

At this point Aang stepped forward, the Mayor looking relieved when he did.

"My name is Julian," Aang said. Toph remembered what his name used to be, but she was the only one. He had chosen to change it when he found her, to hide who he had used to be.

"What are you doing here?" Aang, (or Julian as we must now call him) asked the man.

"My name is Alex. This is my friend, Aya. As I said, we are looking for the avatar."

"Well, as you can see, he is not here," Julian replied.

The girl, Aya, whispered something in Alex's ear, and Alex said, "Well, then would you mind talking to us?" He looked around. "Alone?"

Julian looked at Toph, and she nodded. They turned to the mayor.

"I will talk to him, then tell you what I find. You may then decide what to do with him."

"Agreed," Replied the mayor. He nodded to the villagers, and they all went back inside the village.

"So tell me," Alex said, as soon as they were out of earshot. "What did you do to your tattoos?"

In the next instant, three things happened. Julian lunged at Alex, his hand turning black. Then, Toph started to move, from what Alex could tell, about to thrust him into the air. Third was that Alex stopped time. Everything slowed down, and stopped as he watched. Aya had just started moving forward as well, conjuring a shield. He smiled. They were all rather predictable, Alex thought.

But even as he thought so, he saw a blur of movement, and Julian was behind him, holding a small black dagger.

_No, not black _Alex thought. _Darkness…_

"So it was true, Avatar. You really did learn darkness," Alex said, appearing behind Julian. He grabbed his wrist, and Julian found himself pinned to a tree an instant later.

"Alright, let's talk," Julian said. Then **he **appeared in front of Alex. "But let's quit jumping around like this."

Alex let go of the freeze on time, and moved to the left as Toph finished her attack.

"Hold on, Toph, just a minute. Let's talk," he said, turning to Alex as he held Toph's wrists.

"Well, _Julian_, we've come for you," Alex said simply.

"We need your help," Aya said. "Our home is-"

"Hang on a second," Toph interrupted. "How do we know you don't work for Azula?"

"Who?" asked Alex, turning to Aya.

"She's the dictator over all the people of this world…" Aya said sadly.

"But how do we know you aren't her spies?" Toph asked.

Aya smiled sadly. "You can ask her yourself in a minute, she's coming…"

"And how did you know that?" Julian asked forcefully, glaring at Alex.

"I might explain, but I would hate not to be prepared when she comes," Alex said, his face still expressionless. "But tell you what. If we take her out, will you trust us?"

Julian and Toph both started.

"You really think you could do that?" asked Julian. "I've tried, but she's powerful. She has direct control over the very being of the darkness."

"Talking about me, are you?" asked a cold voice from behind them.

Azula walked into the clearing where they all stood. Alex's expression flinched for the briefest of seconds.

"My, you've gotten ugly," Alex said with a small chuckle. And he was right. Azula was now half covered in dark spots, with one that completely covered her right eye.

"How dare you speak that way to your empress!" she screamed. She shot a bolt of black lightning at him, and Alex held out his hands, and gripped them, as if grabbing a bar. The lightning stopped in mid air, and just hung there.

"Though you haven't quite gotten nearly as powerful as you have repulsive," Alex added.

"Azula didn't move. She wasn't frozen, but she was trying so hard to make the attack move that she herself didn't. She then pushed forward, and a wave of darkness pulsed though the lightning, and shot out the end. Alex groaned aloud, and the wave also stopped in mid-motion. Both of them were starting to sweat.

"Who… are… you?" Azula asked between shallow breaths.

"I'm your new worst nightmare," Alex said, his voice cracking a bit with the strain he was pushing. "Though I must say, the elements are a lot different here… I don't have as much control right now. If I did, you wouldn't still be breathing."

Again, Azula spoke, but this time, her face was blank, and she spoke with the voice of the darkness.

"You aren't from this world, are you?" it asked.

Alex chuckled, dropped his hands, and was suddenly behind Azula.

"Now here's the talk I really wanted. So you are the darkness I've heard so much about? I rather imagined you more powerful."

"You see, Azula has a rather weak grip on us. We only sustain this form at all because we let her. But is it our power, not hers, that makes us great."

As it said this, the darkness rose into the air, and a wave of darkness came from it, this time in all directions, a sphere moving outwards. "Witness the true power of darkness," it said, still emotionless.

"Wow, Alex," Aya said. "He's just as calm as you."

Alex turned, waved his hand, and a bright white hemisphere covered Aya, Julian, and Toph.

"True power?" Alex asked, as he stepped toward the slowly growing mass of black. "Please. Until you have conversed with a planet, you have not known true power."

Alex stepped forward again, right into the darkness. Then all was silent. Julian attempted to break out of the shield, but it held, and when the darkness reached it, the black just moved over it, not even touching it.

Then, just as Julian was ready to count Alex dead, a beam of light shot from the mass of darkness. The black around it curled away from it, and it got wider. Soon, there was a clear path shining its way out of the mass. Then, in a flash, all the black disappeared, and there stood Alex, smug as always, and Azula was on one knee. She seemed to be struggling to get up.

"I am the warrior of light," Alex said strongly. "And I have come to put an end to your existence, in your world, and mine!"

The darkness spoke again. "This vessel is still too weak, and we cannot take him." Then the voice changed to Azula's again. "Not alive, at least. Go, then, leave me now, and kill him. Then have him for your puppet."

"We shall, then," the darkness said simply. Then, Azula crumpled to the ground, unconscious. Then an entirely black shadow rose from her, the spots on her disappearing. When it was fully raised, the body looked around.

"You see how much power we truly have now?" it asked Alex, who just stood and watched. "We, an element, have taken our own form."

Alex suddenly tilted his head to the side, as if listening to something, then said, "But you can't sustain it long, can you? You'll be only a blob again in mere moments."

"What you speak is true, but we can still win." The darkness shot out its arm, which stretched out at Alex at mind-numbing speed. But Alex sidestepped it even faster, and grabbed it with his left hand. A ripple moved down the arm, and when it hit his hand, Alex gasped.

"That actually hurt," he said, the smug expression gone. He then bent his wrist, and with a shove, flipped the entire body onto the ground. He then reached into his shirt, and pulled from it a long white dagger. It seemed to give off light, as he plunged it down into the back of the darkness entity.

The darkness screamed, and it was the worst sound they all had ever heard. It was a terribly, high-pitched howl, sounding like a thousand death cries. Suddenly, the darkness lost its form, and slid back to Azula as a blobby shadow. Azula rose back to her feet, limping forward. She reached for Alex, a mad look in her eyes. But Alex was behind her before she even finished moving. He pushed on her back, and she fell into the dust.

"Going to kill her?" asked the darkness.

"No," Alex said, tilting his head as he had earlier. "Because… you'll just go back to your silly little vein. But.. you are… completely into these two beings, now. You have nothing left in your little cave."

"So you will let us leave?" it asked.

"No," Alex said, his voice suddenly sounding menacing. As he did, his face grew serious again. "I'm going to purge this world of you."

The darkness began to laugh, a deep, cruel laugh, even as it choked on it. "You can't really do that. We can see your power, and it lacks the necessary strength."

"Try me…" Alex said, taking a deep breath.

Azula suddenly turned and ran. Alex only chuckled as she did. He reached down with his hand, and drew a circle in the dirt. He then drew a complex design inside of it.

"Aya, please hurry," he said aloud. The shield that had held them back now disappeared. Julian made to go after Azula, but Alex held out his hand.

"She wont get far, I promise."

Aya walked over to Alex. "You ready?" she asked?

I am if you are," he said softly.

"Excuse me! What the heck are you doing, she's getting away in this weak state!" shouted Toph. But Julian had seen the symbol in the circle, and said, "No, Toph. They aren't letting her get away, they are going to try to…"

"To what?" Toph demanded.

"To destroy the darkness. To rid us of it's existence."

Toph gasped. "You mean?"

"Yah," Julian said, stepping back. "If they don't die, then there will be no more darkness. At all."

Elsewhere…

"So it really was you," asked a man. "You actually destroyed the entire continent yourself."

The man was tall, over six feet. His features were handsome, sharp. His hair was pulled into a tail behind his head, hanging down just above his shoulders, and it shined white. Though he looked reasonably agreeable on first sight, his eyes were a blank white, and his stare was menacing.

"It had to be done. That's all there is to it," answered the other man. He was a bit younger than the first, and his face showed it. His hair was also long, though it was a dark brown. While he looked young, his eyes were similar to the first man's, his grayed over.

"Yes, Strife, I've heard your excuse. But **why** did it need to be done?"

"Wise One, you know as well as I do that they were about to destroy the lighthouse. We can't let that happen, or the seal on the underworld will be broken."

"I know, all right. But I would not have really allowed them to do anything to them."

"I didn't see you doing anything!" Strife yelled. "You were just sitting here, laughing at them. So I took action."

Strife walked right up to him, putting his face right in his. "Is this all you asked me here? To question my intentions?"

"No, Strife. We have a much bigger, important problem on our hands… Alex is gone…"

"So? Good riddance. He was just sitting there under ground for a thousand years. No more worry for me."

"You don't understand! He isn't dead. He's Gone! As in, not here anymore. Nowhere on or in the planet."

"Then I was right. He's left this world, gone to another to conquer it. It's sill no worry for me."

Strife started to leave; walking out of the small straw hut they were in.

"He took Aya with him," the Wise One said quietly. Strife froze.

"Are you telling me, you incompetent fool, that you allowed him to escape with the SOUL OF THE PLANET!"

With a loud crack, Strife disappeared, and reappeared next to him.

"Find him," Strife whispered threateningly, "or I will remove **you **from this world."

"You can't threaten me!" the Wise One shouted, pushing him off of him. "I still have the only darkness in existence, you need me to keep control over this pathetic-"

Suddenly, the Wise One cut off. A look of confusion passed over his face, which was replaced almost immediately with a look of pain. He gasped, and sunk to his knees.

Strife was confused as well for a moment. He hadn't attacked. Wise One was right, he did need to keep him around.

"They've… found the Avatar, on the next world… he's… doing it… already."

"Doing what?" demanded Strife, as the Wise One fell onto his hands.

"Destroying the darkness. My power is… waning… soon, my control… will slip… on the seal. Civilization… will soon… return… to the Overworld…"

"Then there is no more need for you," Strife said. With a crack, he disappeared, and the Wise One collapsed to the ground.


	6. He'll be ok

BACK OUTSIDE THE VILLAGE… 

Alex and Aya were standing in the circle, and had just closed their eyes.

"But, wont you also lose your power?" Toph asked in a whisper.

"No," Julian replied. "They are purging Azula, who has the darkness's consciousness in her. If it works, then I will be the only place darkness **does **exist. Even the soldiers will all die."

As they watched, Alex and Aya lifted their hands in the air, and started to murmur. As they did, the clouds started to block out the sun, and it got darker. Slowly, the two strangers got louder. The language wasn't understandable to the viewers, but Julian picked a few words out that sounded like the dead language used back when bending was discovered.

At this point, the clouds had all turned black, and it was nearly as dark as night. They could just barely make out Azula limping in the distance. Then, just as Alex and Aya's chanting reached a climax, both of them shouting in a thunderous boom, a lightning bolt dropped from the sky, bright white. It hit Azula from above, and a huge flash emanated from the impact. But it didn't subside, and the bright white got even brighter. It shone through Julian's eyelids, and he felt very penetrated by it. He sunk to his knees as the light washed over him. He could feel his strength waning, and the last thing he remembered before losing consciousness was that blinding, piercing light.

He vaguely remembered coming in and out of his sleep, glimpsing Toph next to him each time. Sometimes how would see a flash of blue when he blinked, but everything else blended together.

Finally, he woke up enough to think, but he couldn't move. He felt a very warm hand on his chest. _Who's is it? _He wondered. _Toph's hands aren't that small… _Though he couldn't open his eyes, he could still think. And he did. He reached out with his darkness power, and felt the presence touching him. But as he did, his power was pushed back into him. Whoever it was, they wouldn't let his dark powers even sense them.

However, the dark did bring him a comfort, a kind of familiarity. So he tried again, but this time, he just accessed it, but didn't use it. He could simply let it flood through his body, the comforting feeling spreading to the tips of his fingers and hair.

All except where the hand was. He realized this, and started to push his darkness into that area. But the hand seemed to push it away, and the more he pushed, the more the hand did. He felt it pushing the darkness out from the spot, and farther and farther, until all that was left were the small shadows in the back of his head. But the comforting feeling was gone. However, he suddenly found strength to move. He opened his eyes.

It way Aya who had her hand on him. When she saw him open his eyes, she smiled, and got up, saying to somebody he couldn't see, "It worked, he'll be up soon."

Suddenly, he felt Toph jump on him, wrapping her arms around him. She was letting out an endless stream of words that he couldn't quite catch. He heard something like, "So worried," "thought you were gone," and "all his fault" in there, but it still made little sense to him.

He suddenly felt very tired again, but this time, just sleepy. He fell asleep as Toph's warm tears slid off her face, and onto his.

* * *

IN THE HUT IN Strife's WORLD 

"Strife, what happened?"

"Hayden, I swear, it wasn't me. We were talking, and then he started mumbling about the seal being gone, and darkness being erased… I'll figure it out later."

"No, Strife! Figure it out now! We can't afford to let the people of this world back above ground. Ever."

Strife put his hand to his head, and took a step back. The girl he was talking to, Hayden, was pushing him too much lately. And she continued to.

"Strife, you know as well as I do that this has to stop. And now," she said. She pushed her long brown bangs out of her eyes. Her figure was pretty slim, though her arms suggested she was a lot stronger than she looked.

"I know," Strife said irritably, "but we can't do anything, unless you want to-"

"YES! Of coursed I want to! What do you think I'm getting at? And we need to go **now!**"

Strife looked up at her.

"You really think that I have the strength to do this right now?" he asked, throwing his hands in the air. "I've been tracking the hardest person to track in the world, and he's in a different world. I don't have enough energy to actually bring us there, let alone-"

"Not us, Strife. Me."

"Ok, one, interrupting is rude. Two, what in Wayard makes you think I would send you alone?"

Hayden laughed. "You have to stay here, and govern the underworld. You can't afford to leave, even for this short of time. I'll go, and I'll take care of Alex."

It was Strife's turn to laugh, though it was with a sad look in his eyes. "You would be killed if you confronted Alex, especially when he is with Aya. Not to mention the avatar… You would only last as long as it took them to move."

Hayden jumped at him, but before she even blinked, he was holding her hands behind her back with one of his own, and held a dagger to her throat with the other.

"You have no real concept of power yet, love," he whispered. There was a loud crack, and Hayden blurred for a moment. But nothing else happened.

"What are you doing?" she asked. "Let me go."

"Escape me, even for an instant, and I will send you to Alex and Aya," he laughed.

She closed her eyes, breathing deep. He felt her focus her mind on a single spot; his hand. He watched as his hand began to glow red, then after a moment, burst into flame. All Strife did was chuckle.

"Hayden, after all this time, you should know not to try to take me by surprise. You're still too slow, love."

But as he said it, he felt a tingling at the back of his neck, and realized he really had been taken by surprise. With a crack, he disappeared, and was on the other side of the room; his own dagger dropped to the floor, his own blood dripping from the tip.

"Was it completely necessary to actually stab me?" he asked, putting his hand to the wound. When he removed it, the cut was healed.

"Not my fault you started talking," Hayden said. "Besides, I needed to make my point."

"Fine. Tomorrow. Noon. Meet me in the Underworld square. I'll send you to kill Alex."

"Good," Hayden said with a smile. She walked out of the room with a smug look of her face.

_But you won't kill him… _he thought to himself. _He is too strong while Wayard's soul is with him… I shouldn't have let you win…_

* * *

**Meanwhile…**

Julian woke again, and this time sat up. He looked around, and found himself laying in his bed, in the clay building just inside the village. Toph was still holding him, sleeping now. Alex and Aya were talking in the corner, sitting at a wooden table.

As he sat up, Toph woke up, and Alex and Aya stood up. Toph immediately started to cry again, saying over and over how much she was worried.

"What happened?" he asked, standing up.

"Sit back down, you're still not fully recovered," Alex said.

"But why am I so tired?" Julian asked, even as he sat back down. He **was **tired. He reached for the darkness in him, and let it course through him. Strength returned to him muscles, and he stood again.

"Or not.." Alex muttered.

"The light seems to have gotten to you," Aya said. "When we purged Azula, some of the light energy kit you pretty hard."

"How much darkness is in this guy?" Alex asked.

"Let him decide when to tell you that," Aya said.

"And why should we tell you anything?" Toph asked angrily. "You nearly killed him."

"But we took her down," Alex said. "She now has no more power than a five-year-old."

"Yah, and in doing so, you proved yourself to be an even **more **dangerous person. How are we to know if you're not just here to take over this world in place of Azula?"

Toph had stood up, too, and was glaring angrily at the two outlanders.

"Well… they could take the test…" Julian said quietly.

Toph smiled. "You're right. If he were to pass… I suppose that would work."

"What test?" Alex asked.

"The Avatar test…" Aya said. "it's a race designed to test your control of the four elements."

Julian laughed. "You really **do **know everything, don't you?"

"Most of it," she said with a smile.

"Well, Toph, what do you say? Shall we put them in their place?"

It was Toph's turn to smile. "Let's show them who really runs this place."


End file.
